Karachi: Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has lamented that the Chief of Army Staff and Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence recently had to conduct a briefing for the political leadership of the country on the important national security issue of Gilgit-Baltistan without the presence of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
“Such briefings on national security issues should not be held without the presence of the prime minister,” said the PPP chairman while addressing a press conference at Bilawal House Karachi. He was flanked by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and other leaders of Peoples Party. The PPP is one of the main Opposition political parties of Pakistan, which also rules in Sindh province.
Zardari said that the absence of Khan showed the failing of the present government that has to be rectified.
He lamented that Khanlacked the capability to engage the political leadership of the country including that of the Opposition parties on important issues of national security including Kashmir dispute.
He said that the Opposition in the country was as patriotic as was the government as it wanted that a consensus opinion should emerge on important issues of national security including terrorism, militancy, extremism, Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan. “But for doing so, the government has to engage the Opposition,” said the PPP chairman.
“The prime minister should remain present on such occasions and do his work as otherwise he should resign and allow someone else to do the work in his place who can ably fulfill his responsibilities and should not think about his own political interests,” said the PPP chairman.
He lamented the situation that PM had emerged as the biggest obstacle in the way of creating a national consensus on important issues of national security.
The PPP chairman said that PM had earlier failed to a build national consensus on the most important national security issue in the form of Kashmir dispute due to his inability to engage the Opposition.
“For this reason, Imran Khan has to step down as these instances show that he lacks the capability to run the country,” he said.
